A Fat That Saves You From Sugar (From UCLA's Neurosurgery News)Simple sugars like those found in a can of Coke can also damage thousands of genes in your brain, including those related to Alzheimer's, heart disease, and depression. That's exactly what UCLA professors Xia Yang and Fernando Gomez-Pinilla discovered in May. Luckily they also found some good news: An omega-3 fatty acid called DHA, which is found in fish, including tuna and salmon, reversed the damage.

Learn about one reason that Millenials are experiencing anxiety disorders in such high numbers.

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​Major mental illnesses unexpectedly share brain gene activity, raising hope for better diagnostics and therapies (Sciencemag.org, Feb 8, 2018)"Dan Geschwind, a neurologist and neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who spearheaded the new work, wanted to know what happens at the molecular level in the brains of people with these disorders. He, his UCLA colleague Mike Gandal, and their team analyzed gene expression patterns from the cerebral cortex, the brain's outer layer, of 700 postmortem patients with autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, or alcoholism...The analysis revealed that certain psychiatric diseases are more similar biologically than their characteristic symptoms indicate. Bipolar disorder is commonly considered a mood disorder, like depression, so it stands to reason that the underlying biology of both ailments would be comparable. But the genomic data told a different story: Bipolar disorder overlapped the most in cortical gene activity with schizophrenia...Another series of tantalizing findings hinted at autism's molecular roots. The study showed, for example, that many genes in the cerebral cortex are active in both schizophrenia and autism—but they are far more active in autism. The finding suggests that gene overexpression might play a role in autism's symptoms. Meanwhile, genes linked to neuronal firing were turned down in autism, as well as in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder—suggesting that changes in brain cell communication play a role in all three conditions...Another cluster of gene activity that stood out in autism points to overactive microglia, a subset of brain immune cells that protect against inflammation. Based on that, Gandal is leading a small clinical trial that will test whether an antibiotic can keep these cells in a resting state in adults with autism."​